Congress to field Captain Amarinder Singh against Jaitley from Amritsar

Chandigarh: Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa has said that former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh could be a formidable candidate to take on SAD-BJP alliance nominee Arun Jaitley from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat.

Amarinder, however, said that a local candidate of the party would be able to do more justice to the constituency.

"I will also not be able to spend required period of time there,” he said.

Amarinder said even if he contested and was elected as an MP from Amritsar he will not be able to do justice with the people there as compared to a local.

"I would not be able to do justice with the people of Amritsar as their MP for multiple reasons, besides not being able to contest from there at the first instance," he said.

Amarinder said that Congress president Sonia Gandhi had offered him to contest from Bathinda or Amritsar when he had met her about three weeks ago.

Amarinder said he had clarified at that time itself that he will not be in a position to contest since his wife Parneet Kaur was contesting from Patiala.

He added that his presence was required across the state and contesting from Amritsar would simply confine him to one single constituency.

The former chief minister maintained that the Congress had strong, powerful and quite influential leaders in Amritsar who can successfully take on the Akali-BJP candidate there.

"Amritsar is a strong Congress bastion and the party has won the seat several times and during the last time the seat was declared in favour of the BJP candidate by fraud and deceit," he added.

Arguing that the party must field a local candidate who is well versed with the local issues and problems, Amarinder said “The people of Amritsar are already fatigued and frustrated because of an absentee MP and they will not like to replace one absentee MP with the other.”

"While the previous one was still visible once in a while, the present one (Arun Jaitley) if elected, will never ever be seen around given his interests and commitments in Delhi," he pointed out.